Student Rocket Team Successfully Launches The Stratos II+

As one of Europe’s most successful university student rocket societies, Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering performs spaceflight research and development on all fronts- from liquids, solid and hybrid engines to electronics and actively stabilised rockets.

DARE is pursuing the goal of becoming the first amateur rocketry society in space by reaching the Karman line at 100 kilometres altitude. We previously held the European amateur altitude record which was set by the Stratos II+ rocket that reached 21.5 kilometres in 2015. Currently, Stratos III is in production, aiming to launch in Spring 2018 and regaining the altitude record. Simultaneously, new technologies are being developed for future missions within the Aether project and the Liquid Propulsion project.

Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering (DARE) is one of the most advanced student rocketry groups in the world. The Stratos II+ broke the European altitude record in October 2015, by launching it to 21.5km altitude. The launch live stream was watched by more than 150,000 unique viewers. Besides this, the launch was big news on all national media and made it to several international media like Der Spiegel Online and Business Insider.

The work of DARE takes place at two locations at the TU Delft campus. The first is a manufacturing-orientated workshop (called the LaikaLab) in TU Delft’s Dreamhall. Here the major parts of rocket production take place. The second workshop is an office space for meetings, theoretical design, and electronics development. This facility (called the KorolevLab) is located in the EWI faculty of the university and run in cooperation with TU Delft’s Robotics Institute.